_There is an unbreakable relationship between the Samarth Sampradaya and the Datta Sampradaya. When Samarth went to Mahurgad he got the Darshan of Shree Dattatreya as per the notes of Shree Hanumant Swami who was a member of the Samarth household.Samarth along with his two disciplesUddhav and Kalyan went to Mahurgad.There, in the temple premises, some Brahmins were doing anusthana. Samarth asked the Brahmins “What are you doing the anusthana for?” To that the Brahmins replied “To get the darshan of Bhagawan Shree Dattatreya, we are doing anusthana.”Shree Samarth thought that even he would get the darshan of Lord Dattatreya by sitting for the anusthana. Everyone was immersed in the anusthana.In the evening, one malang, his wife, three children, six hens, nine goats and a male buffalo came near the temple.The malang told his wife “I am hungry so please start cooking something. His wife lit the stove and kept the cauldron (handa) on it. She poured a bucket of water in the cauldron and asked her husband as to what she should put inside the cauldron. As per malang’s instructions she firstly cut the hens and threw them in the cauldron. But the cauldron wouldn’t fill up. Then, again, as per her husbands’ instructions, she cut all the six goats and threw them in. Still, the cauldron wouldn’t fill up. Then the malang told her to cut the male buffalo. The brahmins were watching this spectacle, terrified. When they saw the woman cut all her three sons and throw them in the cauldron they froze. The cauldron had still not filled up. Then the malang told his wife to hack the Brahmins. When the woman started going towards the Brahmins, knife in hand, they left their asana and rosary and started running for their lives.But Samarth, Udhav and Kalyan did not budge from their seats, As if that were not enough, as the woman neared them, all three lowered their heads.At the same instant the malang and his wife disappeared. And Lord Datta himself, in all his glory, appeared there.Samarth felt blessed, by Shree Dattatreya’s darshan. But he felt bad that the Brahmins who were responsible for this benedication, themselves were deprived of Shree Datta’s darshan.Bhagawan Dattatreya told Shree Samrath “Those brahmins were not deserving of this benediction and that’s why I made them running by putting fear in their minds. If you want, I will give them darshan too.”Seeing Shree Datta’s compassion, Samarth sent his disciples to bring back the Brahmins who had run away. The Brahmins felt sorry about their timidity. Samarth consoled them and giving them the mantra of Shree Datta asked them to sit for the anusthana. In due course, Bhagwan Dattatreya appeared again and gave darshan to those Brahmins as well.At that time Samarth composed an aarti of Shree Datta –

_Shree Datta was pleased and gave His padukas to Samarth. Even today those padukas are kept near Samarth’s samadhi at Sajjangadh. In this incident, the hens represent the principles of the gross body, the goats signifythe shadripus – lust, greed, anger, arrogance, attachment and covetousness, the male buffalo stands for ego or pride, the children are the three gunas -sattva, rajas and tama. When all these are destroyed, only then one can get darshan of Lord Shree Dattatreya. The woman represents Maya.